Story Part 30 Part 1 *Not Much Longer???*

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join beneath IceRock for a Clan meeting!" Snowstar yowled.
"I have spoken to Dawnfeather and Raincloud, and they agree with me that Oakpaw and Leafpaw are ready to be given their warrior names. Please step forward. I, Snowstar, leader of FrostClan call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these apprentices. They have trained hard and I commend them to you as warriors in their stead. Oakpaw and Leafpaw, do you both promise to protect and defend FrostClan even at the cost of your lives?"
"Yes," whispered Oakpaw.
"Yes," breathed Leafpaw.
"Then I give you your warrior names: Oakpaw, from now on you shall be known as Oakleaf. FrostClan honors you for your fighting skills. Leafpaw, from now on you shall be known as Leafshadow. FrostClan honors you for your hunting skills. May our ancestors watch over you both." She leaped off IceRock and laid her muzzle on the two newest warriors of FrostClan.
"Oakleaf! Leafshadow! Oakleaf! Leafshadow!" called the Clan.
"Wow! I can't wait until we're all warriors!" exclaimed Etharpaw, bounding up to her friends to congratulate them.
"It won't be much longer!" announced Eaglepaw. Then he too went over to congratulate Oakleaf and Leafshadow. Winterpaw followed him.

Story Part 29 Part 2 *Solutions*

The lion in the pond roared, and Etharpaw felt its hot breath on her face. She leaped up in terror, causing the dock to shake, which spilled her into the water.
"Etharpaw!" yowled her brothers. Eaglepaw sprinted toward the end of the dock, forgetting how unstable it was. The plank beneath him broke beneath his weight and he was spilled into the pond water also.
By now Etharpaw's head had poked above the surface of the water. "Be careful!" she yowled, just as Eaglepaw fell off.
"Too late!" called Winterpaw. He watched as Eaglepaw got his head above water and took in a deep breath. "Can you guys get out alright?" he asked.
Eaglepaw and Etharpaw were swimming strongly in the still pond water. They were, after all, FrostClan cats and FrostClan cats learn to swim almost before they walk. "The bank looks a bit steep," called Etharpaw. "And there's no way we can get back up on the dock again." She and Eaglepaw looked up at the dock looming over them.
"Well, come on! There has to be a way out!" shouted Winterpaw. "Do either of you have a brilliant idea?"
"Hmmm..." mused Eaglepaw. "Could you put some more water in the pond so we can float up to the surface and climb out?"
Etharpaw rolled her eyes. "How's he supposed to do that?"
Eaglepaw looked hurt. "I thought it was a good idea."
"No, it wasn't," snapped Etharpaw.
"Actually," meowed Winterpaw, "It may work."
"How?" asked Etharpaw and Eaglepaw in unison, but Winterpaw was already walking off.
"Hmm... If I can find a hose by the twoleg ruins, drag it over here, and turn on the water somehow, it may work," mused Winterpaw. "The pond is rather small, and while the hose fills up the pond I can dig a ditch out of the steep bank so that Eaglepaw and Etharpaw can climb up easier. It's a good thing Shortwhisker told all those random twoleg tales she learned form that talking picture-box."
Winterpaw rounded a corner by the ruins and found a hose. It's a good thing those twolegs left this here. Now, will it turn on? Winterpaw dragged the hose over to the pond and tossed its end in.
"What are you doing?" asked Etharpaw.
"Trying to save you," replied Winterpaw, heading back to the ruins. He found a knob and pawed at it with a paw. Nothing happened. Then he unsheathed his claws and scratched the metal. This only succeeded in making a shrieking sound that hurt his ears. He shook his head and grasped the knob with his teeth, trying to ignore the rusty-metal taste. He turned his head and, slowly but surely, the knob inched to the right. When he felt the water pressure in the hose, he went back to the pond.
"Hey!" exclaimed Eaglepaw. "The water just got a current."
"I turned the hose on," explained Winterpaw as he began digging a trench on the side of the pond. "That will fill up the pond and you can then swim over here and climb out." He got up and shook the dirt from between his claws.
"I didn't know the pond was so deep when we got here," mewed Etharpaw. "It looked shallow. I would have been more careful if I had noticed. I'm sorry."
"It's OK." soothed Eaglepaw. "I shouldn't have just rushed over to you and fallen in myself. That was pretty stupid."
"Yeah, you both should use more caution," suggested Winterpaw. "But don't worry, the hose shouldn't take much longer."
Eaglepaw and Etharpaw knew better than to ask Winterpaw who had told him about this twoleg invention. The answer was always the same: Shortwhisker.
*Fifteen Minutes Later...*
The pond had taken more time to fill than Winterpaw had thought. Fortunately Eaglepaw and Etharpaw were strong swimmers and were able to swim in place for the whole time. When the two came out, soaked to the bone, they shook themselves dry.
"Um... Etharpaw," meowed Eaglepaw. "Why did you fall in the water in the first place?"
"Oh, it was silly," Etharpaw could feel her fur heating up just thinking about it. "I imagined I saw a lion and it roared and scared me."
"I want to see a lion!" yowled Eaglepaw.
"Sure sure," mewed Winterpaw, who had come back from turning off the water. (They didn't want to flood the forest after all.) "But let's hope we meet some prey first to take back to camp. Or would you two like to explain why we've been gone so long?"
Etharpaw and Eaglepaw flinched. "Let's go!" they shouted.
When they all came back to camp, Snowstar was so proud that they had found so much prey that she never once asked them why they had been gone for so long.

Story Part 29 Part 1 *Exploration*

Snowstar yawned and stretched, then padded out of her den. She saw her kits huddled by the fresh-kill pile and wondered what they were talking about. Whatever, it's probably something trivial, she thought. Raincloud walked up to her then.
"Want to go hunting with me?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied. They walked out the tunnel and headed toward the river.
*At the fresh-kill pile*
"Hmm... There's not nearly enough good prey on the pile today," commented Winterpaw.
"Yeah," mewed Etharpaw, turning over a scrawny mouse with her paw.
"We should hunt for more," announced Eaglepaw. He flicked the small fish he had been looking at back onto the pile. "But first we need something to keep our strength up on the hunt."
Winterpaw held up a decently sized bird. "This should do," he said in a voice muffled by feathers.
The siblings fell to gulping down the morsel. "Alright, let's go!" yowled Etharpaw, done first. They all scampered out the tunnel a few minutes after their parents, leaving a wake of dust behind them.
"Apprentices," coughed Shortwhisker, who had been at the prey pile too.
"Well, where should we go?" asked Winterpaw after they had traveled quite a distance from camp.
Eaglepaw looked right and then left. "That way." He pointed right with his tail. They all went that way.
"Hey, I don't think we've ever gone this way before," meowed Etharpaw, observant as always.
Eaglepaw looked around at their surroundings. "Way cool! You're right!"
Winterpaw looked nervous. "We don't know what's out here," he mewed cautiously.
Etharpaw's eyes sparkled. "You're right! There could be an evil monster out here. Let's find out!" She bolted into some bushes, with Eaglepaw closely following her.
Winterpaw was left alone in the clearing. "Hey guys, don't leave without me!" he howled, chasing after them.
Eaglepaw and Etharpaw were cackling with glee. "This is fun!" cried Etharpaw.
"Did you see the look on Winterpaw's face?" asked Eaglepaw. They stopped running then.
"Shhh... he's following," whispered Etharpaw.
Winterpaw came out from behind them. "There you are." He looked relieved. "How will we get back?"
Eaglepaw flicked his tail. "We'll just follow our scent back."
"C'mon! Let's explore," whined Etharpaw. "I think there's something past those cattails." Hmm... there are cattails here, so there must be water. 
Etharpaw padded forward, reaching out a paw to part the cattails. She gasped and withdrew.
"What is it? What is it?" asked her brothers. Eaglepaw looked excited, but Winterpaw looked almost afraid.
"Ruins," she whispered. "Twoleg ruins on the other side of this pond."
Eaglepaw looked up at the sky. "We haven't been gone long, we must have really ran fast. I wonder why no other warrior has found this place?"
Winterpaw shrugged. "I guess they never bothered going so deep into the territory. If this even is our territory. We may be outside the boundries. Don't we need to hunt?"
Etharpaw peeked back at the twoleg ruins. "Sure, we can hunt over by the ruins. There should be plenty of prey making their homes in there. Let's go look!" She led the way around the pond and over to the ruins.
"Wow, it looks kinda scary from here," whispered Winterpaw. He envisioned the boarded up windows as blank, staring eyes, and the empty space where the door should have been as a gaping mouth.
"Hey, look at this!" called Etharpaw from far away. Her brothers turned to look at her. "There's a bridge thing here, but it must have sunk underwater, because only part of it is here."
"It's called a dock or pier," explained Winterpaw. "Shortwhisker told me that people use them to tie their stuff at and sit on."
"Ooh! I want to sit on it!" yelped Etharpaw. She ran onto the wooden planks. Eerk! The planks groaned with stress.
"Be careful!" called out Eaglepaw. "It doesn't sound stable!"
"I'll be fine," Etharpaw called back. "If twolegs could walk on it than I can." She made it to the end and sat down, looking into the clear water of the pond. Some small fish, too small for prey, swam beneath her, taking shelter under the pier. She looked up across the pond to the opposite bank. A light breeze blew through her fur, ruffling it gently. In that moment she felt perfectly at peace with nature.
"Do you think the dock will support us?" asked Eaglepaw. He had walked up to the beginning of the pier.
"It should," Etharpaw called back. She looked back into the water, but the scene beneath her had changed. Etharpaw gasped as a desert plain spread before her in the water. She could hear paw-steps, a roar, and then saw a flash of an animal she had only heard described in nursery stories, a golden-maned lion!

Gathering 10/10/11

Please come to the gathering if you are able.
You will find the link to the site on the left side of my blog.

~Snowstar